Shah, Collingwood part of Daredevils' season II plan

The Delhi Daredevils said new purchases England's Paul Colingwood and Owais Shah were part of their plan for the second season of the IPL.

Written by Press Trust of India

Read Time: 2 mins

Panaji:

The Delhi Daredevils on Friday said new purchases England's Paul Colingwood and Owais Shah were part of their plan for the second season of the Indian Premier League as they kept in mind the cricketers' availibility.

The Daredevils bought the utility cricketers in right-handed batsman Shah and all-rounder Paul Collingwood for an identical sum of $275,000 each.

With the induction of the pair, the Daredevils have completed their quota of 10 foreign players as they have already picked uncapped Australian trio of David Warner, Andrew McDonald and Dirk Nannes before the auction.

The other five foreign players in the Daredevils squad from last year were former Aussie pacer Glenn McGrath, New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori, South Africa batsman AB de Villiers and Lankan duo of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Ferveez Maharoof.

"We are very excited about our picks this season. Today's picks of Owais Shah, who is an exciting batsman and all-rounder Paul Collingwood give us the desired firepower in batting and enough bowling depth for the entire season. We have built the team keeping in mind the players' availability.

"The two picks today were very much part of the plan and I am glad to say we have achieved that goal," said former Test fast bowler T A Sekar, who is also the Vice-President of GMR Sports, the franchise owner of the Delhi outfit.

To give impetus to their pace attack, the Daredevils, who were last edition's semi-finalist, had earlier swapped left-handed batsman Shikhar Dhawan with left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra from the Mumbai Indians.

Besides, the contract for Brett Geeves was bought out while controversial Pakistan pacer Mohammed Asif was released at his own request and Shoaib Malik's contract was terminated following the non-availability of Pakistan players.

"We have a bunch of committed players, who performed very well last season and this year they have the ability to go all the way. Led by Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, the best opening pair in the world in all forms of cricket, we have a perfect balance in the team," said Amrit Mathur, COO, GMR Sports.